Short Skirts Risk Rape Comment Causes Controversy In UK
According to a British lawmaker, wearing short skirts puts women at risk of being raped. Richard Graham made the comment to a local newspaper today, and anti-rape activists are not happy that he’s putting the blame on the victim.
“A night out is about having fun without putting yourself at risk. If you are a young woman on her own trying to walk back home through a park early in the morning in a tight, short skirt and high shoes, and there’s a predator…if you are blind drunk wearing those clothes how able are you to get away?
Graham clarified his comments later in a blog post, saying that his comment “in no way intimates ANY excuse for predatory behavior.”
Graham said that his comment did not imply that a woman in a short skirt is “asking for it.” Instead, Graham said that he was trying to talk about risk management.
Graham said:
“Risk management is a million miles from saying anything like ‘she was asking for it … It’s not about the impact of your clothes on a potential predator in my view – it’s about whether the clothes you’re wearing make it harder to get away from a predator.”
What do you think about Graham’s comment? Do short skirts and high heels put women at risk of being raped?
Jo Wood, a trustee of Rape Crisis England and Wales, said that rape was not about clothes or how drunk a woman may be. Wood said that Graham’s comments put the blame on the victim instead of the predator.
Wood told Gulf News:
“These comments have set us back about 100 years. It doesn’t matter if you are off your face and lying naked on a bench — that man takes it upon himself to rape you. This should be about putting the blame back on perpetrators.”
What do you think of Richard Graham’s comments?
Tags : blame the victim, rape comment, richard graham, risk rape, short skirts risk rape, short skirts risk rape comment
Posted: January 27, 2013
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Jan 28, 2013
Sounds like this gent needs a wake up call. Might be a relic. We recommend one of the essays from http://www.sophiasirius.net.
Jan 28, 2013
Rapists put women at risk of being raped. Not skirts.
Jan 28, 2013
These idiots need to just stop talking…
Jan 28, 2013
These comments are nothing new, they may be ignorant and stupid, but not new. If someone is determined to rape a woman, it makes no difference what a woman is wearing.
Jan 28, 2013
Yes girls and women do dress more provacative these days than when we were young in our era 50s & 60s. And wear shorter skirts and dresses and let their cleavage hang out and have too big of implants anyway. And some these dresses wear on Awards Shows etc. look like their falling out. And that okay with me. But I myself would want to be noticed for me and boobs and butt does not make a woman. Breeding Brains and Beauty. And Classy not Trashy. But whatever a woman wears is her choice and should never anyone have the right to touch or rape her. And a guy that was normal would not think like that or do such a thing. Rape is act of violence not sex anyway. And if they are that kind of monster or perpertator and rapists they will rape women no matter what they wear or where their at. That only excuse for sick deranged person. And they come from every walk of life. Not all look lkie monsters either. Scary…
Jan 28, 2013
uh. . .do you have any data to support that claim, anne? or, like graham, are you incapable of separating ideology (i.e., what you would like to believe) from reality (what the evidence shows that you should believe). while i doubt that short skirts are an inducement to rapists, i really don't know. but i do know this: naked claims without any supporting data are worth nothing. which puts you and graham on opposite sides of the same worthless coin.
Jan 28, 2013
I would think he was saying it makes for very easy access and easy to complete the rape.
Jan 28, 2013
I believe he's talking with his willy…..thousands of rapes happen to women whose cultures dictate that they're covered in long clothing with very little skin showing. Do we hear of rapes in places where semi-nudism or nudism is allowed?
Jan 28, 2013
What a completely ridiculous comment, and this man is an MP? Short skirts, is what young women wear when they have little or no, common sense… that is however, not an invitation to rape, this idiot makes men sound like animals, with no self control at all… and besides, regardless of what they wear, or do not wear… No is still no!
Jan 28, 2013
What? That makes no sense at all.
Jan 29, 2013
I'm amazed at the massive overreaction to Graham's comments, apparently by people blinded to basic reality. What he gave was a SCENARIO, and a very practical and balanced one. While no girl wants to be raped (I say "no girl", although I have met some who actually fantasize of being raped), many girls do dress with the hope of attracting a sexual partner. Without criticizing that choice, clothes that attract men sexually are not necessarily discriminate–they will draw a man who is a predator just as they would a man who is a potential date. Add to that a vulnerable situation, such as being alone, a secluded place, such as a park in the wee hours of morning, then throw in diminished capacity due to drinking, and I agree with Graham you might have a cocktail well suited for assault. It's the equivalent of warning a black person not to walk at night on the street wearing all black clothing. That's not racism, nor are such black people "asking" to be run over. It's just impractical clothing for the situation. A black person in a nightclub wearing all black clothes–big deal. The combination of clothing and location and situation all come into play. Graham's comments on skirts were not addressing a girl's promiscuity, rather her stupidity. The behavior he described was unsafe, and those rebutting them are saying, in effect, that all places ARE safe, no matter how compromised a person is, that people who leave their doors unlocked are just as practical as those who lock them, and that a warning to wear your seatbelt is the government's way of saying that a person not wearing one who goes through the windshield was just asking to. The reaction to Graham's comments is a repeat of the age old theme that sticking your head in the sand and pretending that sexual predators don't exist is more important than common sense. Following the popular logic, MORE girls should be alone in the park, half dressed and half drunk. There is nothing wrong with such choices. C'mon, people. Find some balance.
Jan 29, 2013
Hmmm…so, what you're saying, Jamie, is that people who make naked claims without any supporting data are just asking to be verbally assaulted by people like you. I guess it really does matter how you dress.